I use a loomis venture. $100 flat. It's been beating kings for a number of years now.

I am not wild about taking it to salt, but meh... it'll do.

It's not a large arbor, but it's a line holder that has a good drag.

If you are getting a reel for kings, make sure the drag can lock down tight without failing or putting a flat spot in the drag bearing. You will need both hands on the rod, and if line is slipping, you'll never land a king. The venture can handle that, and is damn near smooth enough to handle the crazy runs. It's a little rough there compared to something like an abel, but again, it'll do. After three years, it started to kick into freespool now and then if I bump it on something. Doesn't happen when there is tension on the spool, so I don't worry about it.

Ya, well someone works for LL Bean, who may offer an employee discount I would imagine. Guess who carries Tibor?

/thread

But continuing non the less, I would note that the other two non-Bean brand Bean sold reels you mention, the Ross and Lamson may both be a tight fit for the line. The Ross is 7-9. How much backing you gonna get on that reel before you have to stuff the line in there? Given that fly reels are not level wind, line can pile up on one side of the reel causing the reel to tighten up. This happens to me because of the "get lightest reel in the world" mentality. Given choice of 3-5 or 5-7 and I wanted to put a 5 wt line on it I would choose the 3-5 which turned out to be a mistake imo.

Wait--so they're discontinuing the A3...?Just kidding. I know this is a tread about high end sealed drag reels.

On that note, I used my Allen Alpha in the salt on an OBX trip last week. Hit specks pretty hard in the sound, blues in the surf, and did some kayaking that dunked the reel in saltwater. After opening it up to clean it a few times I found some brown stuff where the spool screws into the reel. Not sure if it is starting to corrode or if that is just very dark oil that was seeping out of the drag. Still feels smooth, I'm just not sure how long it's going to last in the salt, even with regular cleaning.